Aug 22, 2012

I Forgive Oprah

Oprah Winfrey. Photo:  Rolling Out.
It feels like I've been away in rehab but really just reinventing myself at Hollywood's Become a Host TV coaching program.  

"We haven't had a breakthrough until someone's in tears," our coach said. 

had a breakthrough.  I forgive Oprah.

Back when Oprah shot to fame with her Chicago-based talk show, I was an overweight Black girl on the way to becoming a newscaster; the same way Oprah got started. Given the similarities to Oprah's story, maybe the nickname was inevitable:

Little Oprah

I hated it.  I wanted people to view me as a serious journalist, not a daytime diva.  I wanted to cover disasters and wars;  not celebrities with egos as inflated as their paychecks.

And truthfully, Oprah's extra curvy figure wasn't...Well, like many girls, I fantasized about being the hot, thin star on those glossy magazine covers.

I stayed away from the drama of daytime talk show positions or jobs that required interviewing celebrities - leave that throne to Oprah.   

Later, after years on the crime beat, I was so hardened that our news director would send me to cover gruesome murder scenes that none of the men wanted to see.

I tried so hard to prove I was not Little Oprah that I missed my own story.

"I made a mistake," I told my coach.

"You took a different path," she replied reassuringly.

Honestly?  Oprah doesn't need my forgiveness; she's not to blame for my missed opportunities.  Sure, I still want to tell stories that set the world ablaze but now that may mean sharing the set with a celebrity or two.

www.facebook.com/shayholland 

Aug 7, 2012

Kinky. Nappy. Frizzy.

Gabby Douglas. Photo: www.fleurdecurl.com
Gold medalist Gabby Douglas responded beautifully to haters who said her hair looked "unkempt" at the Olympics:  "I just made history and people are focused on my hair?"

I lived in Gabby's Iowa town back when I was chasing presidential candidates through cornfields for the NBC station. I covered politics but that changed the day I was sent to fill in at the murder trial for two teen brothers.

The brothers claimed they had just meant to scare the victim - chasing him with a shotgun - but a bullet had ricocheted off the ground. The courtroom drama was made-for-TV stuff.

At one point, the prosecutor grabbed the shotgun off the evidence table, aimed at the jury and cocked it.  Screams.  People ducking. Banging gavel.

The prosecutor had made his point:  Waving a gun in the air? That's scaring someone.  Pulling a trigger?  That's murder.

"You're on the crime beat now," my boss said after my stories aired to stellar ratings.

On that beat, you quickly see that weapons are more than guns and knives. Sometimes they're words...like the ones hurled at Gabby Douglas.  Meant to crush not the body, but the spirit. 

Someone needs to give her a hair intervention.  

She needs some gel and a brush.  

She needs to represent. 

Kinky. Nappy. Frizzy.  For many Black women, our hair sometimes feels like a crown of thorns.

Gabby doesn't see it that way. "It can be bald or short," she said, "it doesn't matter about (my) hair."

The name of my blog comes from a critic's comment, "Honey, blot your lips!"  We pinned up that note as a reminder to check each other's appearance before going on air.  We learned to turn meanness into motivation and garbage into gold - just like Gabby's done.


www.facebook.com/shayholland